I was talking to an old friend recently, she has kept up with the people I knew in middle school and high school better than I. To hear what became of many of my friends was... heart breaking.

I remember them as young and full of life filled with dreams of grandeur. Now my friends are totally different. Drugs, sex and time took it's toll on them. People that were smart and sophisticated are now married to complete losers and have a several kids with the girl they knocked up. A girl that I once had a huge crush on and was always got better grades than me at school is working at Smith's; and she is now married to some guy how works there too. Two of my other friends are just total party bums; it's all about the drugs, alcohol and sometimes sex for them. The best parts of their life's have already past...

What went wrong, why are they in those situations? How did the kids I knew turn into these people? It is like their life's just exploded after I left. Could I have done something that would have lead them down a different path? If I had been there at the right time could I have changed their life?... Why do I even think that I can change a person's life for the better? Am I so presumptuous to think I am an important enough figure in people's life's, even my friends, to effect their decisions just by my mere presence? In the end what can I do for them, what can I change? They have made their choices and I have made mine... But it still pains me all the same; maybe even more so since I am helpless to change events of the past.